Method for establishing communication between peer-groups

Abstract

Current peer-to-peer systems are well defined for messaging and collaboration of peers running the same proprietary software and protocols, e.g. Kazaa or EDonkey. The generic framework JXTA for P2P computing provides various peer-group mechanisms and may address different applications, but provides no convenient method for exchanging messages between different peer-groups. The invention discloses a bridging concept and a delegate concept to establish communication between a first and a second peer-group, including the steps of a first peer being either a member of the first peer-group or a secondary peer relating to a primary peer, wherein the primary peer is a member of the first peer-group, sending a message to the second peer-group; a second peer being a member of the second peer-group receiving said message, detecting credentials of first peer and first peer-group, and detecting whether a connection is allowed; and if so, granting the first peer membership with the second peer-group.

1 . A method for establishing communication between a first and a second peer-group, including the steps of 
 a first peer, the first peer being either a member of the first peer-group or being a secondary peer relating to a primary peer, wherein the primary peer is a member of the first peer-group and is related to the secondary peer via a separate connection, sending a message to members of the second peer-group;    a second peer being a member of the second peer-group receiving said message and detecting from the message a peer identifier of the first peer, a peer-group identifier of the first peer-group, an application for a temporary group membership of the first peer in the second peer-group, and an indication that the first peer intends to build up a connection to the first peer-group;    detecting whether for the second peer-group a connection to the first peer-group is allowed; and    if such connection is allowed, granting the first peer membership with the second peer-group, wherein the first peer is allowed to send data or messages and/or provide services from the second peer-group to the first peer-group.    
   
   
       2 . Method according to  claim 1 , wherein the relationship between the primary peer and the secondary peer comprises that both peers are software instances or threads running on the same hardware.  
   
   
       3 . Method according to  claim 1 , wherein the relationship between the primary peer and the secondary peer comprises that they use a secret protocol or encryption that is not known to other peers.  
   
   
       4 . Method according to  claim 1 , wherein the first peer is also allowed to receive data or messages and/or request services from the first peer-group and provide them to the second peer-group.  
   
   
       5 . Method according to  claim 4 , wherein data or messages and/or service requests provided to the second peer-group are broadcast at least to all peers within said second peer-group that hold a connection to other peer-groups.  
   
   
       6 . Method according to  claim 1 , wherein the data and services in the second peer-group are classified, and wherein said detecting if for the second peer-group a connection to the first peer-group is allowed comprises detecting a confidence level relating to the first peer-group, the confidence level determining which particular data and services of the second peer-group may be provided to the first peer-group.  
   
   
       7 . Method according to  claim 6 , wherein said detecting a confidence level relating to the first peer-group comprises checking a central list provided by an Internet based server or checking a local list.  
   
   
       8 . Method according to  claim 6 , wherein said detecting a confidence level relating to the first peer-group comprises the second peer-group contacting said first peer-group for confirmation.  
   
   
       9 . Method according to  claim 1 , wherein said connection granting the first peer membership with the second peer-group is automatically terminated after a predetermined time or upon a predetermined event.  
   
   
       10 . Method according to  claim 1 , wherein data or messages sent from the second peer-group to the first peer-group are marked, and wherein peers of the first peer-group may detect said marking and upon detection of said marking reject copying or further distribution of the data or messages.  
   
   
       11 . Method according to  claim 1 , wherein the first peer is a secondary peer relating to a primary peer, and wherein peers and peer-groups have individual identifiers, and wherein the identifier of the secondary peer equals the peer-group identifier of the first peer-group.